Panel 3: Challenges to sustainable land and marine-based livelihood systems in the Pacific

Coordinator(s)

Foale Simon, George Nicolas Curry, Gina koczberski, Frank Thomas

Session presentation

In the Pacific, livelihoods and well-being remain closely tied to agriculture and fisheries. While the past, as documented through environmental reconstruction using archaeological and historical ecological data, together with modern species conservation plans, can provide some of the knowledge and tools for sustainable livelihoods among contemporary Pacific Island communities, we need to be critical of the effectiveness of traditional coping strategies under new conditions of growing population, altered land- and seascapes, escalating climate-related hazards, and changes in community and individual needs. A key challenge to the long-term sustainability of land and marine-based livelihood systems is how to maintain household food and income security in the face of population, land and market pressures, changes in land use, shifting consumption patterns and climate and environmental stressors. Within this context of transformation, it is important to deepen our understanding of how Pacific people respond and adapt to the pressures on their livelihood systems and to understand the range of strategies they employ to reduce their vulnerability to food and income security. Equally important is the need to gain insights into why some households or communities have a greater capacity than others to ameliorate the risks and uncertainty in their livelihood and food systems.

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